Monday, 20 July 2015

As you can see it was perfectly nice and all but it just wasn't grabbing me.

The other wall which you can't see in this pic had patchwork wallpaper in duck egg shades and the chimney breast was painted in a teal colour.

I started by searching for the perfect wallpaper and decided I would paper the whole wall, chimney breast as well as the alcoves either side.

I checked out all the usual places I turn to for wallpaper - Laura Ashley; Cath Kidston; Next; Wallpaper Direct but it was eBay where I succeeded in finding the perfect paper:

Vintage Sanderson - I couldn't find any info about it online so I emailed Sanderson with the label info and a photo and they said it was printed in the 1970's.

Isn't it just gorgeous?

I was delighted when my searching though eBay proved so fruitful but I was, however, a wee bit nervous about what Mr G would like as he always said "No" to full on florals in the lounge.

Naturally, I did what any self respecting girl would do and I didn't tell him and bought it anyway!! *blushes*

My friend says "better to seek forgiveness than ask permission"!!

I managed to get all four rolls for £40 - Sanderson wallpaper is about £70 PER roll so as well as being just wanted it was also a super bargain.

Luckily, when I broke the news to Mr G he reacted in his trademark laidback style!!

And so we spent a Saturday wallpapering.

I hate wallpapering.

I swear I'm never going to do it again every time I do any.

But I love wallpaper, so what's a girl to do?

We can't have a real or gas fire in the chimney breast as the flue is not right and we'd never found an electric one that didn't look totally fake. Then when we were on holiday we saw these stoves by Dimplex from their Optimist range - you fill a reservoir with water and a light shines through the steam, this creates ever such a realistic flame effect.

They were priced at £500-£700 so we thought we'd save up to get one but I decided to check good old Gumtree and low and behold there was an almost new top of the range Optmist fire for the princely sum of £125!!

So we collected it on the way home and it fitted right in. The mantle shelf was £20 from eBay and I just waxed the bare pine with Annie Sloan's dark wax to get an antiqued look.

It's impossible to capture in a photo but the flames have that real flickering look.

The wallpaper gives the vintage look I was after.

The china cabinet was my £6.00 bargain from the tip!! The chairs belonged to my Mum and we had them when she got a new suite.

The hare lamp is by Abigal Ahern for Debenhams and is last Christmas's favourite present.

The portrait is of my beautiful horse TC and Mr G had it done for me a few Christmases ago.

As you can see we have a lot of photos in our home - I love the way they are a daily reminder of treasured memories - I once read that lots of photographs is a sign of a happy home.

The cabinet they sit on is Art Deco and was another bargain (£8.00) from the tip!! The clock on the sideboard belonged to my late beloved Granddad and though it no longer works it's something I treasure.

This cabinet is an Ercol Court coup board and was a bit expensive for us at £40 - once the paper went up I knew it needed a colour change....

I decided to pick out the gold/mustard colour in the wallpaper and I used Miss Mustard Seeds Milk Paint to re-paint it. It's proper old fashioned paint that comes in powder form, you mix it with water and it creates a beautiful, authentically chippy look....

For the sofa (which I'm not keen on but is very practical with a houseful of animals and teenagers) I made a stack of cushions out of Sanderson fabric remnants and used a beautiful vintage crochet throw that my dear friend Dawn gave me for Christmas....

So that's the lounge. I need to change the curtains at some point, I'm rather fancying some heavy, interlined ticking ones so I need to keep my eyes peeled for some bargain fabric, I think....

Thursday, 9 July 2015

Or for you, is a little free time the chance to relax, unwind and recharge your batteries?

I know many of my readers have little ones and it can be hard to find a moment to oneself in the hustle and bustle of looking after little people.

Our boys turned 15 years and 17 years last month and I've now long been rather surplus to requirements (unless I'm making dinner or picking up after them of course!!)

(They'll go mad if they see I've posted this pic!!)

When they became Tweens and no longer needed the constant supervision younger children need I found myself at a loose end. I had my horses (which I got back into when both boys were in full time school) but I couldn't help feeling something of a fifth wheel.

I cannot work due to health issues and found myself twiddling my thumbs. I'm not ashamed to confess feeling a bit depressed. Of course children always need their Mum but I just didn't have the day to day role of looking after them.

I was "saved" by Kirstie Allsopp.

Her first craft series aired on TV and after seeing her manage to knit after years of thinking she couldn't I was inspired to try crochet again - I too had tried and failed before.

This time I cracked it and that gave me confidence to try other things.

Soon I realised it didn't matter that I failed both Textiles and Art GCSEs at school.

So now I have so many things to pass my time I sometimes don't know what to choose and I can't imagine what people do who do not have a hobby.

I still like to crochet but I also knit, sew, embroider, draw and DIY - a report from school as a child once said "Sarah is like a butterfly, she flits from one thing to another" and that, I guess, is still very true!!

A few recent makes:

I still have horses, so spend a bit of time outdoors.

This is TC (The Colonel) and I adore him.

And I don't mind a bit of a potter in the garden, these days, I think it must be an age thing - I especially like growing flowers to bring indoors:

It turns out gardening is one of the UK's favourite outdoor pursuits and if you wondered what the others are First Utility have a neat little chart with all the info:

Tell me in the comments what you like to do with your spare time and energy?

Do you fall into one of the categories on the chart, or do you do something out of the ordinary?

Sunday, 1 February 2015

Well, my promise to blog more regularly didn't pan out for January did it?!!

I've been quite busy in my cabin making "Homebroideries" (bespoke machine and hand embroidered house portraits) as I had a special offer at the end of December so had a fair few commissions:

I've created a second blog "Homebroideries" - which I can use as a portfolio of my work and has all the details on how to order. I'd love it if you could pop across and follow me over there too? There are lots of of pics of my previous work for you to have a nosey at.

In other news - one of my best friends from school had her third baby, a little boy and so that meant I could give her the cardi I knitted while she was expecting - what a cutie, eh?

I went for cuddles and although he was absolutely gorgeous, I didn't feel broody for once. I think that phase has passed for now!! I love it when they fall asleep on my chest, I must be comfortable as most little babies I cuddle do it!!

Just before Christmas I bought myself a vintage Singer - I wanted one specifically for free motion embroidery as I understood that these old machines are particularly good for that (in fact Poppy Treffry uses them to make here lovely products).

I had Googled and researched and found it was quite tricky to ascertain which Singer was thought to be the best for FME, one forum would say that the 99k was best, another would say the 201k another still would prefer the 221k - and then you'd find info saying completely the opposite.

In the end I opted for the 201k - which in its day (the serial number on mine tells me she was manufactured in 1951) cost six months wages.

She came with her beautiful bent wood case:

I found her on eBay - I noticed she was from where I grew up and it transpired it was an old school friend of mine who was selling her!! We had a lovely catch up and I went away with my lovely machine.

Up at the horses TC got a lovely new rug - when I saw the polka dots I couldn't resist!!:

I went with my Mum and her BFF to see The Russian National Balket perform "Swan Lake" - I'd wanted to see it for a while and it didn't disappoint:

Friday, 2 January 2015

Today marks the start of 2015 (the same year Marty McFly went Back To The Future!!) and my only resolution is to blog more regularly as I was definitely rather slack last year.

We had a quiet family Christmas, Mr G has been off since 19th December (the day before our 18th wedding anniversary) and we have had slow lazy days.

The house was all decked up and looking festive and there were a couple of outings to see my niece Little E in nativity and to visit the local garden centre - I have to borrow her these days to get my fix of kiddy things as at ages 16 and 14 H & W are less inclined to humour me!!

On Christmas Day itself I was a lucky girl and opened a navy leather handbag, fab hare lamp, a Bluetooth speaker and lots of stocking fillers from Mr G - and (having started a Microsoft Apprenticeship in November) for the first time H bought me a gift with his own wages, a lovely sewing box covered with roses.

W also popped into Cath Kidston with all his mates (they were on their way to see The Hobbit) and chose me a lovely mug - we have around ten CK mugs but he managed to pick one I didn't have already so I was super impressed!! Apparently, all his mates Mum's got the same mug too!!

I have been busy in the run up to Christmas crafting. I work on at least one project every day and can no longer just sit and do nothing. If I'm watching TV I'm also knitting or stitching too!!

I had a few commissions for my bespoke embroidered house portraits too:

They are very tricky to justice to on camera, I really must get my DSLR out and try and get some proper shots. I have a fair few orders to be getting on with so will try and get better shots of them. I'd like to build my little hobby this year and do one a week or so.